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Military operations are temporary, massive, and radical military power-ups that enhance a limited range of aspects, mostly combat performance (attack, defense, and speed). These operations come with significant drawbacks, including reduced performance, increased war exhaustion, lowered operational feasibility, higher costs, and other potential penalties, making them high-risk, high-reward options.
In total, there are ten different operations divided into three categories: five for the army, two for the navy, and two for the air force.
Each operation costs a certain amount of military power to implement, and only a maximum of one operation can be online. If an operation is implemented, it will automatically be marked as a national modifier, while also activating a global cooldown to all operations, in which the cooldown has a varying duration per operation selected.
Once the cooldown expires, all operations are able to be chosen, however, the operation that was previously enabled can only be renewed by purchasing it with military power. In addition, one cannot manually disable the operation or bypass the cooldown, as the modifier will remain permanent until the expiration date.
Special Durations[]
Most military operations last 180 days and share a global cooldown of 365 days. However, a few have unique durations or cooldowns:
Massed Artillery lasts for 90 days, with a standard 365-day global cooldown.
Guerilla Warfare has a shorter global cooldown of 180 days but maintains the 180-day duration.
Blitzkrieg (part of Lightning Offensive) lasts only 30 days.
Lightning Offensive alone, however, follows the regular 180-day duration and 365-day global cooldown.
Since both Blitzkrieg and L.O. overlap with each other, their modifiers stack until Blitzkrieg expires.
Limited Usages[]
Generally, most players, particularly those who play public servers, do not widely or consistently use operations because of three different reasons:
High Costs: Operations range from 300 to 1,250military power — with Massed Artillery being the least expensive and Lightning Warfare the most costly. With cost reductions from specific doctrines, such as Downfall Initiative (under Massed Attack) for Guerilla Warfare and Combined Bombardment (under Manoeuvre Warfare) for Lightning Offensive, the cost can drop to between 188 and 625. These operations are temporary, one-time-use abilities, meaning once they expire, they must be repurchased to be used again.
Radical and Unreliable Nature: Operations provide extreme modifiers, offering both significant advantages and drawbacks. For instance, while Guerilla Warfare grants a massive +165% defense boost, it also incurs a -80% reduction in ground attack. This type of trade-off applies to other operations, which may appear beneficial on paper but become impractical in real situations. Because of this, many players prefer more stable, conventional modifiers such as doctrines, military leaders, political leaders, and technology.
Limited Scope: Operations primarily focus on enhancing combat performance, but they often come with significant drawbacks that affect both combat and non-combat aspects, such as increased war exhaustion and higher costs. Since they are geared towards combat, their utility is largely restricted to times of war. Additionally, their effectiveness is limited for naval and air units. In the navy, operations mainly boost frigates and transport boats — the former being unpopular and the latter increasing ground unit upkeep. For the air, they upgrade bombers, attackers, and transport aircraft, though transport aircraft are not widely favored. As a result, while operations can offer benefits, they lack broad and far-reaching advantages across all unit types.
While military operations are not commonly used by most players, they can be extremely useful in specific situations, mostly during the late-game. For instance, despite Guerilla Warfare's significant reduction in attack power, its massive defensive boost can help players hold off superior enemy forces during a crisis of near capitulation, allowing them to defend their territory. In the air category, Shock and Awe upgrades attackers' and bombers' attack and speed with no drawbacks, making it particularly effective for mass assaults on enemy ground forces or bombing enemy cities.
Additionally, operations tend to be more frequently and strategically utilized in private matches, where gameplay scenarios, regulations, competition, and skill levels differ from public matches.
Military Operations List[]
Army[]
Army Operations Chart
Elastic Defense
Operation Description"Rather than static lines, we need to be more flexible in order to respond to enemy breakthroughs"
Operation Description"We will pour all our resources into conducting a swift and decisive advance into our enemy territory. The best offense is a good offense!"
Operation Description"In order to break through our opponent's fortifications, it is imperative that we coordinate several enveloping strikes into the enemy, shattering their defenses and disrupting their lines."
Operation Description"Rather than risking our personnel in costly ground invasions, we will simply drop overwhelmingly amounts of ordnance on them to break their fight!"
Operation Description"The future of warfare is to move as much troops as possible as far behind enemy lines as possible to hit them where they least expect it!"
All military operations are based on real-life military strategies and tactics. The information below (click 'Expand' to view) provides a brief list of descriptions for each operation's real-life counterpart.
Guerilla Warfare - Small, mobile, and often irregular troops execute surprise attacks, hit-and-run tactics, and unconventional warfare to avoid direct confrontations with superior enemy forces. Examples include the Viet Cong's tactics during the Vietnam War, where they used ambushes and guerrilla tactics against American troops, and the Afghan mujahideen's resistance against the Red Army in the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War, exploiting hit-and-run methods in mountainous terrain.
Maginot Theory - Construction of strong defensive fortifications, often along fixed lines, to deter or repel enemy attacks. An example is the Maginot Line built by France before World War II, a line of heavily fortified defenses along its eastern border to prevent a German invasion.
Massed Artillery - Deployment of a large number of artillery pieces to deliver intense and synchronized firepower. Examples include the artillery barrages during the brutal trench warfare in World War I, particularly in the Western Front, where both the Entente and Central Powers used massed artillery to soften enemy defenses before infantry assaults, and the Soviet use of massed artillery during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II to break German sieges and support counteroffensives.
Lightning Offensive or Blitzkrieg - Rapid and overwhelming attacks using combined arms, such as tanks, mechanized infantry, artillery, and air support, to achieve swift victories. Examples include the German Blitzkrieg during World War II, where rapid armored thrusts and coordinated air raids quickly encircled and crushed enemy forces, as seen in the invasions of Poland in 1939, Denmark, Norway, France, and the Low Countries in 1940, and Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union in 1941.
Deep Battle Theory - Deep Battle Theory, also known as Deep operation, was developed in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s, and emphasized destroying, suppressing or disorganizing enemy forces not only at the line of contact but also throughout the depth of the battlefield. Deep battle envisaged the breaking of the enemy's forward defenses, or tactical zones, through combined arms assaults, which would be followed up by fresh uncommitted mobile operational reserves sent to exploit the strategic depth of an enemy front. The goal of a deep operation was to inflict a decisive strategic defeat on the enemy's logistical abilities and render the defence of their front more difficult, impossible or irrelevant.
Naval
Island Hopping Campaign - Capture of strategically important islands while bypassing heavily fortified ones. Subsequently, the captured islands would be used as a base to launch further attacks and assaults onto the heavily defended ones. This strategy was developed and implemented by the Allies, predominantly the United States, during World War II in the Pacific theater against the Empire of Japan. An example of this strategy was the Guadalcanal campaign, where the Allies selectively advanced toward Japan by avoiding more heavily defended positions.
Naval Swarm Tactics - Coordinated use of multiple small, agile naval vessels to overwhelm and outmaneuver larger, more heavily armed naval forces. An example is the use of small attack craft by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf, employing swarming tactics to counter larger and more technologically advanced naval assets, specifically those of the United States Navy.[1]
Air Force
Shock and Awe - Use of overwhelming firepower, rapid dominance, and psychological shock to paralyze and destroy the enemy's will to fight. An example is the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, where precision airstrikes and a display of technological superiority were employed to quickly destabilize the Iraqi regime.[2] In-game, this strategy can technically be considered as 'partially incorrect', as according to the game, Shock and Awe mainly surrounds the use of attack aircraft. However, Shock and Awe is primarily associated with the use of explosive firepower and ordnance from all branches of the military, including the army, navy, and air.
Mass Air Mobility - Rapid deployment of large numbers of airborne forces using transport aircraft. An example is the Allied airborne operations during World War II, such as Operation Overlord (D-Day), where mass air mobility was used to quickly insert paratroopers and airborne troops behind the German lines to seize key objectives, mainly by disrupting and destroying key defenses and infrastructure.
Gallery[]
The Military Operations list when a operation is activated
Preliminary display of the military operations located in the national modifier interface
Trivia[]
Military operations were initially previewed in the Official Discord on November 5, 2023, and released in the 11/07/2023 Update (November 7, 2023).
Before the 10/24/2024 Update (October 24, 2024), most military operations cost 1,000 military power, with the exception of Massed Artillery, which cost 500, and Lightning Warfare, which cost 1,250. After the update, nearly all operation costs were moderately reduced, though the cost of Lightning Warfare remained the same.
Shock and Awe and Massed Artillery are the only two operations that have their costs unaffected by doctrines.
Naval Swarm Tactics, Shock and Awe, and Mass Paradrop are the only three operations without any downsides. However, both Naval Swarm Tactics and Mass Paradrop are not widely used, as they respectively boost less popular units — frigates and transport aircraft — compared to their more effective counterparts, such as destroyers and bombers. In contrast, Shock and Awe is widely regarded as an optimal operation because it enhances attackers and bombers, two units known for their strong combat performance and usages.
Deep Battle Theory initially had an increase of +125% to Military Attack against Entrenched Units and a +40% increase to Military Attack against Fortified Units before it was nerfed to it's current state in the February 10, 2025 patch.
Deep Battle Theory was also the first ever considered operation to be added, being suggested by SirSquare6.
